Ice Cream Spree

It feels like summer here in Plano and it's not even June yet. I think the high yesterday was somewhere around 91 degrees. And heat like that makes me crave ice cream. (Ok, I'll be serious, everything makes me crave ice cream.) I've been playing with my ice cream maker and experimenting with some different flavors. Here are two of my recent creations.

Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

This one was really simple. Just two ingredients: Chocolate and Yogurt. It is really rich and creamy, and has a nice tangy flavor from the yogurt. What I particularly love about this frozen yogurt is how there are tiny flecks of chocolate that hardened when it was freezing. It adds an interesting texture to the final product.

I also get to tell myself that it is healthy because it's yogurt not ice cream. I happened to have made some homemade Greek yogurt about two weeks ago and I really needed to use some of it up and that's where I got the inspiration to make this one. You can just use store bought yogurt, if you don't have the time/desire to spend about 8 hours making yogurt. (Fortunately, I had both.) I don't know if you make much homemade ice cream, but isn't it the best when it first comes out of the ice cream maker and has the consistency of soft serve? Yum!

Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

8 Ounces of Chocolate (I used a mixture of 5 oz semi-sweet and 3 oz of milk chocolate)

17 Oz container of Greek Yogurt (at room temperature)

1. Melt the chocolate in the microwave. Start by putting it in for 1 minute and then stirring. After that, microwave for 15-25 second intervals until most is melted and then stir until all the chocolate is melted. (The residual heat will finish melting the rest of the chocolate and you don't have to worry about burning it by leaving it in the microwave too long.)

2. Mix the chocolate and the yogurt together and place in your ice cream maker. Freeze according to your manufacturer's instructions.

3. Store in the freezer and enjoy your sweet treat!

Adapted recipe from The Nesting Project.

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

One of my favorite things to do is check out Food Gawker website. I get lots of inspiration from the photos that are featured there. I found a recipe for this ice cream and it was perfect because I already had everything I needed. I had half of package of cream cheese and some heavy whipping cream. I also had some leftover strawberries after I made a Berry Cobbler for dessert this week. Since I only had half of the cream cheese needed I just cut the recipe in half, but it still made quite a bit of ice cream.

The ice cream was a really pretty pink color. I was pleased with the flavor; you can definitely taste the strawberries, and the cheesecake part was understated but detectable. If the seeds bother you, strain the ice cream before freezing it to get them out, but I don't mind the seeds, so I didn't. Overall, I thought it was a really good ice cream, but I think my Strawberry Ice Cream from the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Cookbook is still my favorite.

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

3/4 lb Strawberries

8 oz. Softened Cream Cheese

3/4 c Sugar

1 c Milk

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

Pinch of Salt

1/2 c Heavy Cream

1. Put the strawberries, cream cheese, sugar, milk, lemon juice, and salt into a blender or a food processor. Blend until everything is incorporated.

2. Stir in the heavy cream and freeze in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

Recipe from Bakin' and Eggs website.

Hope you enjoy these ice cream selections! As the summer warms up, I'm sure I'll have even more to share!